It’s that time again! Thrifty Thursday. Lest you think that thrift stores only have ghastly pictures (as evidenced last week), I present to you a pretty stellar find:

Mid-century modern bookshelf.

This bad boy was only $6.99 at a St. Vincent de Paul store. Six dollahs and ninnah-nine cents! It was a very exciting find. I thought for sure it was mis-marked, that there must have been a 1 or a 2 in front of the 6, but nope. It was in great shape. The paint on the legs is flaking, and the metal nubs are missing from the legs, but other than that, it’s in excellent condition. It has two sliding glass doors, which you can’t really see from the picture. No nicks, cracks, nothing. Truly a score for a mid-century modern piece.

I think mid-century modern looks really cool, but it’s not really my style per se. Still, I thought it might be a great opportunity to buy it and try to sell it for a profit, something I’ve never attempted. Plus, I knew it’d fit into my car. 🙂

I stood in front of it and stared it down for a good long while, contemplating buying it. (I’m notorious for doing the “It’s five dollars. I mean, if it was FOUR dollars…”) When someone appeared to be taking an interest in the shelf, I reached out my hand to touch it. Finally, I reached out my hand and ripped off the tag, officially claiming it. I then went on my way in search of more bargains.

There was a bit of a panic when I heard a voice over the loudspeaker intone “If someone has the tag for a bookshelf with sliding glass doors…”. I immediately ran up to the registers, waving my ticket wildly. “Oh, OK, it’s yours. You can still shop. Someone else was interested and they said they’ve been waiting a while and no one bought it so they thought maybe it was still available.”

YES! Someone else wanted it but I got it! I felt the flush of victory! ::does victory arm-pump:: (I get really jazzed about this stuff.)

An hour or so later I did buy it. When I got home, I looked at comps. Check this out!

Similar comp from classifieds.apartmenttherapy.com

$289!! Now, I know there is no way I could get that much, and I wouldn’t even try, but still it’s exciting to see what bargains you can find at thrift stores. I just love the hunt! And hopefully I’ll be able to sell it and make someone who loves mid-century modern very happy.

*Thank you for your kind words yesterday. I found out more interesting (read: not good) news. It’s been extremely rough, and I imagine it will continue, but Imma keep pluggin’ away like I always do. ‘Cause if I don’t, we don’t eat. 🙂

Seven months ago I was recruited to a new position. It was great! I loved my team! Now seven months later, I’m the only one from my team left. (Well, there’s one more person but she’s given her notice.) There have been shifts due to a reorg for the past several months and there’s going to be more in the future. And right now, I am so over it. I’m tired of dealing with this, of tick-tock, tick-tock not knowing if I’ll have a job (or what it’ll be) in however many weeks or days. It’s no wonder I’m on the wide-awake-at-4-am schedule.

Last week someone asked if I regretted the change? Sigh. Yes, that’s a great thing for me to ponder now. Although maybe that should have prepared me for the barrage of emails I got after it was announced that my boss was leaving. You wouldn’t believe how many emails I got asking “What does this mean for you?” In addition to making me roll my eyes clear to the back of my head, it spoke volumes about the current, unstable situation.

I’ve been trying to be proactive, but I’m tired of looking for new opportunities and not having anything come to fruition. Or better yet, they seem great and when it gets down to it, you realize what you read about it NOTHING like the actual opportunity, or they don’t know what the heck they want. ::facepalm:

And let me tell you, being recruited over to a team only to have everyone scatter within less than a year? It’s a pretty awful feeling. Doesn’t do anything to quell the panic, that’s for sure. Plus, while I’m really happy for my former teammates who have gone on to greener pastures, it makes me feel bad, too, like, “Why not me?”

Lately, at melodramatic as it sounds, I can’t help but think “Where did I go wrong?” Now, I’m very pragmatic and I know thinking that won’t help or change anything. But I suppose when I feel stuck and I can’t cover any new ground, those negative, useless thoughts crop up.

Oh! I’m frustrated with some family stuff, too. I won’t even bother getting into that, but suffice to say, I’m drained. Again, I am so over it.

All this stress is making it difficult for me to sleep, and the past couple days I’ve noticed when I think about it I get this weird tightness in my chest, like there is a band around it. I’m making a good effort to eat well, practice self-care and the like, so I don’t think it’s anything worth concerning myself about, not right now anyhow. I just need to get it out, so that’s why I’m unloading here. (I promise this won’t become a regular thing.) Times like this I wish there was a batting cage, so I could safely, in a healthy way, hit something really hard and release some of this frustration. Since I am not anywhere near a batting cage, I went for a long walk. See? I am trying to deal with things in a healthy manner. It’s just a rough time because so many things have piled up at once and I have a feeling there’s more to come.

Blergh.

That’s the end of my rant. As I said, I promise this won’t become a regular thing. And here is something nice: If you made it through all that, you certainly deserve a picture of two sweet kitties. Here you go. 🙂

No matter how awful a day or week or month, these guys bring me so much joy.

I have so many photos I need to upload, this week (and next, and likely the entire next month) will be catch-up time. I’ve done a good job of cleaning out my closets and organizing my space. That’s still a work in progress, but it’s time I started cleaning out my camera and computer, too. This picture of Sophie is from last fall!

I see you!

She definitely loves to get into things.

One of my goals this year is to capture all those fun things she does and put the pictures and anecdotes into a book at the end of the year. Last night I was sorting through old family photos, hundreds of them. I know that will happen to me if I don’t get organized so et voila!

Thanks for the support last week. It was definitely an awful week, and I know friends who experienced bad things last week, too. I’m kind of expecting some not-great news at the day job this week, so while I’m hoping this week will be better, I’m not sure. However, I’m going into it with a positive, can-do attitude, which should help. Monday ain’t got nothing on us!

I love this picture of Sophie. She looks so happy and relaxed. And the Superman-esque pose almost kills me with the cute. I wish I was home on the couch with her right now! I could use some relaxation. I’m under a bit of stress and have developed a lovely eye twitch. I should just pretend I’m winking. 😉

On a slightly related note, I would sure appreciate any purrs, prayers, good thoughts or vibes you’d like to send for me this Wednesday. In the morning I have a meeting that could lead to a great opportunity. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, but hopefully good things will come from it. I do believe things will work out one way or another, but it’s always nice when it happens sooner rather than later, lol.